How to get out of this financial hole?
My husband and I would like to be stable someday - large savings, no debt, house of our own, car paid off, etc. But it seems so impossible.
I work 32 hours a week (no chance of going full time right now - positions are frozen at my company because of the economy). Other jobs in my field (mental health, caregiving) only pay hour, and I make .87. As I’m not full time, we don’t get benefits.
My husband is a full time student - half of his tuition is covered by Fin Aid, the rest is out of pocket. He has not worked in almost 11 months.
I have 0 of debt (no student loans). When we met, my husband had ,500 of debt, all in credit cards. We’ve gone through the cycle of paying them down, and raising them up when I changed jobs and we lived on credit for a few months. We’re still recovering.
Monthly, I take home about 00-00. I only make around 20k after taxes each year.
We have our car payment, rent, monthly bills, gas, groceries, etc etc etc. After all is said and done, we don’t have anything left over at the end of my paycheck. I keep maticulous financial records and we know where every penny is going - all to bills. We do not buy anything frivilous at all - we nipped that in the bud when we got married. We haven’t even gone out for lunch at mcdonalds in a year. The dollar menu is a little too pricy.
We live in the cheapest place we could find (0/month), and I bought the car from my dad’s dealership so my payments are very reasonable.
I guiltly accepted an offer from my parents to be added to their cell phone plan, which I need for work, so we only pay /month for our phones.
Having only one income makes it difficult, but we get by. We get the bills paid, and still have a roof over our head. I realize though, that we can’t live like this forever. In a few years, we would like to start looking into buying a house, but how on earth can I save 30k for the down payment, pay off the debt, AND keep our bills paid up?
Looking for another job really is not an option right now - I work in the field I went to school for (psychology), at the only mental health organization in our county. If I went somewhere else, I would surely make less.
Sorry for this being so long, I have a lot weighing on my mind.
Sorry forgot to mention:
Total savings: .
Total debt: ,000, not including car.
We still have 3 years left of our car loan - we can’t give it back now lol. But thank you for the advice. As for my husband quitting school - he did one online class this summer, and this fall will be his first quarter taking a full load in 3 years. For 9 months he sat on his bum all day (I dont want to get into how messy our house is because he wont clean). I work nights, and getting a weekend job would be great if I had a set schedule - which I dont 
Rock…meet hard place.
I worked two part time jobs all four years I was in school, which I went full time. My husband has a hard time concentrating, which is why he left school before. He has a year left before he gets his AA
Tags: bud, buying a house, car payment, cell phone plan, credit cards, dad, earth, economy, fin aid, frivilous, full time, groceries, lunch, mcdonalds, mental health, own car, parents, paycheck, student loans, time student